25/05/2017

Why tick tock, zig zag, ding dong, King Kong?

If you're a word geek, there's a delightful article at the BBC by Mark Forsyth I think you'll enjoy. Check it out. "The language we know but don't know we know."

The big bad wolf ie the rule of ablaut reduplication

“Adjectives in English absolutely have to be in this order: opinion-size-age-shape-colour-origin-material-purpose Noun. So you can have a lovely little old rectangular green French silver whittling knife. But if you mess with that word order in the slightest you’ll sound like a maniac. It’s an odd thing that every English speaker uses that list, but almost none of us could write it out.” - Mark Forsyth, BBC

1 comment:

Roy said...

This is wa-aaay too much to think about. You realize, of course, that I won't be able to write another damn complete sentence until I forget I ever read this.